Chapter 12
Vann
Erica doesn’t answer the phone when I’m booked at the jail.
She doesn’t answer when I’m released the next day and they give my phone back.
She doesn’t answer my whole way home in the back of a reeking Ryde car.
When I walk through those doors, I’ll apologize for the obvious accident at the concert, and then she’ll apologize for letting them arrest me and not answering any of my calls, and we’ll get back to the way everything is supposed to be; I tell myself this as I climb the stairs to our apartment.
As I turn the key in the lock and move through the doorway, the space is as quiet as death, though nothing seems out of place.
“Erica. I’m home, baby.” She likes that stupid, sappy shit so I try to call her sweetly.
As I continue through the apartment, I still don’t find her. I open a few cabinets and find that her things are missing.
Bright red rage rises within me; my body feels too hot for my skin as I stomp back to the front of the apartment and snatch the note I hadn’t noticed when I came in.
Vann,
We both know this isn’t working.
I’ve been trying to find a way, or reason, to leave for longer than I was ever happy.
As much as I want to be mad at you for hitting me.
Hurting me.
I’m more relieved than anything.
I finally have a solid reason to leave and I’m taking it.
So, this is goodbye, Vann.
It’s over.
Please don’t try to reach me. You’re blocked everywhere.
Please don’t try to find me.
I’m not coming back.
- Erica
The burning, red rage has risen within my eyes and now all I can see is crimson. Who the fuck does she think she is?
Leaving me?
That isn’t a fucking option.
Erica is mine and, one way or another, I will get her back and bring her home.